Inferno
by WookieeBeta
Summary: A drunk driver throws Jou's world upside down. (PG-13 for language and character death; one-shot)


**A/N: **Another fic I'd forgotten about…dun really like it, it didn't come out like it was supposed to, but whatever…

**Rating: **PG-13 for some language and dark themes. 

**Disclaimer: **Much to the relief of the world, Wookieebeta still does not own Yu-Gi-Oh!. 

**-------------------------------**

**Inferno**

  
Thunder boomed as jagged lightning seared across an otherwise pitch-black sky. Rain poured down in thick sheets, pounding the windshield and making it impossible to see. 

  
Which explained why Yuugi's hands were clenched so tightly on the steering wheel, and why his face was drawn in concentration.   
  


"Guys, be quiet!" he said, exasperated. "I can't see in this rain, and your arguing isn't helping any." In the backseat of the van, Jounouchi, Honda, and Otogi suddenly looked very innocent. Mai just rolled her eyes.   
  


"Should we pull over?" Anzu asked, leaning forward so she could see the driver more clearly. "I mean, it's pretty late, and there's no point in driving through this rain if we don't have to."   
  


Yuugi nodded. "I think you're right. I don't like this rain, anyway."   
  


"Then I'll call the Kaibas. There's a little motel, just about half an hour away. We can stop there. And yes, Jounouchi," she added with a significant glance, "they serve dinner."   
  


"What gives you the idea that I was going to ask that?" the blonde asked indignantly.   
  


"Couldn't possibly be that look on your face," Mai responded sarcastically. "Or the fact that all you think about is food."   
  


------------------ 

  
"Sure," Mokuba Kaiba chirped into the cellphone. "I'll tell Seto. We'll meet you there." He hung up, and turned to his older brother Seto. "That was Anzu," he explained. "They're stopping for the night at that motel just up the road."   
  


Seto nodded. "Sounds good to me," he said. "You know how much I just love driving in the rain."   
  


Minutes ticked by. The radio murmured quietly as the windshield wipers snapped back and forth across the windshield, flicking away gallons of water only to find even more there half a second later. The small Kaiba car crested a relatively tall hill.   
  


"Er, Seto?" Mokuba asked. "Isn't this a one-way road?"   
  


"Yes," Seto answered, only half-listening. He was busy retuning the radio.   
  


"Then why are there headlights up there?"   
  


The older Kaiba brother's attention was instantly back on the road, just in time to see a pair of brilliant headlights dip down into a little depression and disappear from view. 

  
"Holy - call the others," he snapped, veering toward the side of the road. He wasn't worried about his own safety - he never did - or even that of his brother; they knew the other vehicle was there, they were prepared. But the van was completely unaware, and he estimated that if the driver didn't figure it out in about fifteen seconds or less there would be a head-on collision. Mokuba's train of thought was identical, and he had dialed before his brother finished speaking.   
  


"They're not answering," Mokuba said nervously.   
  


Seto cursed and leaned on the horn, flashing his lights on and off as rapidly as possible.   
  


"They're still not picking up!" Mokuba was definitely panicking now. "Big brother, isn't there something we can do?"   
  


"Not anymore," Seto said grimly. The car crested another shorter hill, and once again their timing was perfect: Not so far ahead of them, red taillights blazed, and white headlights created a fiery corona around the van's silhouette. There was a squealing of brakes, and the van swerved ever so slightly, and then the huge truck slammed into the van with the force of a hurricane and the sound of the impact rolled over them like a peal of thunder.   
  


----------------

  
Jounouchi blinked slowly, his vision blurred but coming back into focus. His eyes stung. He coughed; the air was filled with a thick, foul-smelling smoke. His seatbelt buckle was searing his skin.   
  


The Brooklyn blonde's mind snapped into gear instantly, and he ripped off the seatbelt, throwing it into the luggage behind him. Looking around, he realized he was the only person conscious. He stepped carefully over Otogi's unmoving but seemingly uninjured form and grasped the doorhandle, ignoring the pain in his palms as he pulled backward with all his might. The door didn't budge. He pulled again, and again, and again. He coughed. The smoke was starting to make him dizzy, and he cursed. He gave another mighty tug -   
  


And nearly flew backwards as the door slid back easily. Seto Kaiba's brown-haired head poked in and took a quick survey of the carnage, then he climbed in and lifted Anzu and Mai in his arms. In an instant he was gone, carrying both girls and moving like lightning. Jounouchi managed to sling Otogi over his back and crawl out, coughing and hacking the entire time.   
  


"Mokuba, call an ambulance," he heard the older Kaiba call. "They're all unconscious, and it looks like Honda might be hurt pretty badly."   
  


"Working on it," the dark-haired kid shouted back, sprinting across the road to the car and disappearing inside. Jounouchi gave another weak cough and stumbled over to where Seto was checking the girls' pulses.   
  


"Chihuahua!" Seto exclaimed, surprised. "I thought you were out cold."   
  


"I'm not so easy," Jou growled, setting down his friend's unconscious body with considerably less care than he meant to and nearly collapsing to his knees. He was still having trouble breathing, and his side hurt terribly. He didn't even have the strength to toss an insult Kaiba's direction.   
  


"Stay here," the young CEO said, standing. "I've got to get the others. That van's going to blow."   
  


Jou's vision swam suddenly, and by the time he was able to focus again the tall, slim figure was already gone. In under a minute he was back, this time carrying Shizuka. Jou gasped; she was bleeding from several deep gashes on her face, and her arm was bent at an odd angle.   
  


"Get over here and help," Seto snapped. "We're running out of time!"   
  


"Right," Jounouchi grunted, rising to unsteady feet and following the CEO back to the burning van. Kaiba disappeared into the back for Honda while Jounouchi pried open the front door, ignoring the huge rush of superheated air that nearly singed his bangs. 

"Yuugi," he called into the smoke. "Yuug! Hey, Yuug, answer me!"   
  


"Jou...Jounouchi?" a weak voice murmured.   
  


"Yuugi!" The Brooklyn blonde climbed back into the blazing hellhole, waving his hand in front of his face in an ineffective attempt to clear the air. "C'mon, little guy, it's time to get you out of here."   
  


"Just...go," Yuugi's weak voice came again. Suddenly Jounouchi realized that that wasn't his friend's voice; it was the former Pharaoh. He had never heard the Egyptian spirit sound so tired or so forlorn. Jounouchi fanned away some of the smoke, trying to get a better look at his friend.   
He immediately wished he hadn't. Yuugi's seat had snapped off at the base and thrown itself into the dashboard, pinning the teenager's small chest against the seatback and the steering wheel with crushing force. To make matters worse, the Sennen Puzzle was deeply embedded into Yuugi's ribs. Blood gushed steadily from the gaping wound. Then it dawned on Jou that that wasn't the young duelist's only wound; his left arm was almost totally severed.   
  


"Gods, Yuugi," he breathed.   
  


"I told you, go," the spirit murmured again. "There's nothing you...can..._ahhhhhhhhhh!_ do...now."   
  


"No, man! Hang in there, Yuug! Don't let go yet! I'll get you out of here!" Seto's words came back to him: _"That van's going to blow..."   
  
_

Suddenly there was a slight change in the duelist's face. Crimson eyes faded to violet; hard lines in the face melted into the more innocent visage of youth. Yuugi coughed up blood.   
  


"Jou..." He had a weak smile on his face.   
  


"Yuugi! Hold on, buddy!"   
  


"Please, Jou...leave me...no hope...." He coughed again, his small form wracked with painful spasms. "Yami's already...gone...won't live anyway..."   
  


"No! I won't leave you!"   
  


Yuugi's eyes fluttered open and locked on Jounouchi's. They were filled with an immense pain, barely held back, but they were pleading, begging. Jou felt as though his heart had been shredded.   
  


"No," he gasped, tears coursing down his cheeks. His calloused hand found Yuugi's small, lily-white, fragile, blood-stained one, and he squeezed it gently. There was no way he was leaving his friend to die like this. He put his free hand against the back of the chair and shoved it away from the dashboard, hoping to free his friend, but it only moved a centimeter or two. Yuugi gave an anguished moan.   
  


"Please, Jou!" he whispered. His eyes were still clear and bright, and he still had that half-smile on his face. _So innocent_, Jounouchi thought. _He doesn't deserve this. That should be me in that chair, dammit, not him! _Not him!  
  


A single crystalline tear trickled down Yuugi's flawless cheek and splashed against the burning carpet of the van. "Please," he begged again, voice weak and almost inaudible, "save yourself...forget about me...gas...explode any second...live...Jou, please, go, promise me...take care of...Shizuka and...Grampa...please?" Yuugi's head lifted ever so slightly; his eyes were still pleading, glistening with those perfect tears of his, and his hand was squeezing Jounouchi's. Then his head fell gently forward, and his hand fell away from his friend's, and the life slipped away from his perfect flawless face, and the fire reached the engine and the heat flared all around Jounouchi, and two immensely strong arms reached in through the deadly flames and grabbed the blonde by the shoulders and yanked him away from the wreckage a split second before the van exploded in a blazing inferno.   
  


----------------

**_Drunk Truck Driver Kills King of Games   
 - Domino City   
_**_Mouto Yuugi, Duel Monsters Champion and King of Games, lost his life yesterday in a tragic head-on collision. The driver of the other vehicle was drunk; he is in good condition at the Domino Hospital. The other passengers in Mouto-san's van are all in stable condition at the hospital, as well as Kaiba Seto, CEO of KaibaCorp and rescuer of the surviving passengers. An exclusive interview with Kaiba Mokuba, younger brother of Kaiba-san, has revealed that...   
  
_

Jounouchi smoothed out the ancient newspaper clipping, rubbing the creases flat and letting salt tears spill down his face once more. Ten years later, five miles further down the road, and he still couldn't forget his best friend....   
  


Carefully, reverently, he held the corner of the clipping to the flame of the lit candle and watched as it flared brightly for a few seconds before crumbling to ash.   
  


It was time to let go of the past.   
  



End file.
